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A Matter Of Life And Death: Statutory Authority Enabling Sobriety Checkpoints To Effectively Fulfill Their Public Safety Role, Christopher J. Bodnar

Christopher J Bodnar

In 1990, the United States Supreme Court upheld the use of sobriety checkpoints as a tool for combating the public safety hazard of drunk driving. Since then, thirty-nine states have authorized sobriety checkpoint use. Today, these checkpoints are largely ineffective in many states, because of judicial decisions holding that observation of a driver avoiding a sobriety checkpoint does not constitute reasonable suspicion to allow an officer to make an investigatory stop. Since sobriety checkpoints no longer effectively further the state’s substantial interest in public safety, the suspicionless stops made at these checkpoints are likely unconstitutional. This Note proposes a model …